Richard Grayson
Richard "Dick" Grayson was the original Robin to the original Batman. Grayson was the one that Bruce Wayne cared for the most and despite not being biologically related, although Wayne never ended up adopting Grayson as his son, due to the short age gap, the two came to respect each other as father and son. Richard was also the second person to wear the mantle of the Bat. Richard's tenure as Batman lasted little over a year and for the most of it, he only assumed it for when Bruce was missing. After Bruce would return to Gotham, Richard would return to his mantle as Nightwing, knowing that he would have to become Batman again someday. Biography Robin, the Boy Wonder After being born in Haley's Circus to John Grayson and Mary Grayson, Richard was marked by the Court of Owls as a potential Talon. In order to mark this, an owl insignia would be implanted in one of his teeth. Richard grew up to join the Flying Graysons with his parents, headling Haley's. However, on one fateful night, when Dick was was barely fifteen, his parent's were killed while performing by Tony Zucco. The day was coincidentally Mary Grayson's birthday, with Richard having had given her a bracelet of a robin bird earlier. Witness Bruce Wayne took in Richard as his legal ward, and later son, though Richard was initially disdainful to the billionaire playboy; Dick did note that Bruce did not seem reckless and uncaring up close, though. At the orphanage before Bruce finished the adoption, Richard spent much of his time planning on a way to get revenge on Zucco, attempting to become a vigilante himself. After seeing the vigilante Batman in action himself, Richard began aiding the Dark Knight in his fights, with the latter never stopping him. Richard was also able to deduce Bruce Wayne and the Batman to be one person. After being taken to the Batcave, the caped crusader offered to train Richard to be his sidekick. Eventually Wayne was able to strike a deal with the orphanage and allow Richard to live at Wayne Manor, all the while Richard trained day and night to enact his revenge on Zucco. After being shown the acid that cut the rope his parents performed with, Dick grew sure that it was Zucco who killed his parents. Every night, Dick would sleep with a sample of that acid under his bed. After months of training, Dick made his debut as the vigilante Robin by helping rescue Bruce from Lady Shiva. The two formed the team of Batman and Robin, the Dynamic Duo. When outbreaks of uncontrollable fear washed over Gotham, Dick helped Bruce realize that GCPD adviser Jonathan Crane was the one behind the crimes. On his first night of action as Robin, Dick was to only observe as Batman fought Tusk but broke the rules and ended up getting fired. Wanting to get his "job" back, Robin went one on one with Tusk and defeated him, regaining his right to join Batman on patrol. At Gotham State University, Batman and Robin confronted Jonathan Crane, now the Scarecrow, for the first time. Unable to capture him, the duo rescued his graduate class and set about tracking him. Chasing him to the farmlands outside of Gotham, Robin was again dosed by the Fear Toxin and had a terrible nightmare. Taken back to the Batcave, Robin described the effects of the gas to Batman. The two then traced Crane to a church where they learned of his intention to go to Prague. After taking on Scarecrow's operation by himself, Robin had a huge argument with Batman and threatened to quit. Tracking Scarecrow in Cairo, the Dynamic Duo eventually busted him and returned from their adventure. After returning, Robin would battle Tusk many more times. During Richard's tenure as Robin, he had a small relationship with Starfire and a friendship with Roy Harper. Eventually Richard came to love Bruce as he did his own father, coming to respect Bruce as a father as well. One of the most significant cases that Dick and Bruce encountered was that of Carter Nichols, who disappeared shortly thereafter. After helping Bruce capture the Cluemaster, the villain's code was almost permanently stuck in Dick's head. Robin also flirted with the possibility of a romance with Batgirl, but it never truly materialized and they instead became best friends. Rot in Purgatory As Robin, Dick began to work extensively with Batgirl and Batman. During this time, he met Catwoman and helped Batman take down the Joker. Batman and Robin then dealt with the curious case of Carter Nichols, who disappeared shortly after the incident. Robin was present when John Mayhew failed to hold the Club of Heroes together. With help from Superman, Batman and Robin took down Blockbuster. After meeting Superman, Dick learned of an ancient Kryptonian legend known as Nightwing. After helping Batman fight the Joker, Harley Quinn, Two-Face, Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy, Dick retired from his role as Robin and took up a new identity, that of Nightwing. As Nightwing, Dick was mostly on his own adventures and for an entire year, fighting Tusk again several times. Nightwing only returned to Gotham for the funeral of Jason Todd. Nightwing helped Bruce take down Thomas Elliot and combat Simon Hurt and the Black Glove. After Bruce was assumed dead at the hands of Darkseid, Richard's emotions were put overboard. Seeking to repay his debt to Bruce, Dick decided to raise his "brother" Damian Wayne in a fashion similar to Bruce raised him. Helping Alfred forge a letter from Bruce to Damian, Dick took up the manbtle of the Bat with Damian as his Robin. The two then set up their base of operations not in the Bat-Cave, but rather in the Bat-Bunker in the subbasement of the Wayne Tower. As Batman, he met up with Michael Lane of the Order of Purity not long after setting up operations. After being scrutinized by Detective Nie, Batman met up with the recently debuting Batwoman and faced his first supervillain, the Jeremiah Arkham version of the Black Mask. The new Batman and Robin then fought against Professor Pyg, with the two growing to have a brotherly bond. Just as Dick had with Bruce, he and Damian began to investigate the case of Carter Nichols. Batman and Robin then proceeded to protect Gotham from the terrors of the Blackest Night and almost right after had to fight Eduardo Flamingo. Taking the corpse of "Bruce" that Superman recovered, Dick proceeded to place it in a Lazarus Pit. However, the corpse belonged to a clone which tried to murder the entire Batman Family before being stopped by Richard. Batman then apprehended the debuting Tiger Shark and James Gordon Jr. After visiting Talia al Ghul with Richard, Damian chose to stay as his Robin over returning to her. Upon returning to Gotham, Richard was forced to deal with the Black Glove and the 99 Fiends. Dick and Damian managed to defeat Simon Hurt in just enough time for Bruce's inevitable return. When Bruce announced his plans for Batman Incorporated, Dick decided to stay as Batman while Bruce travelled abroad. Prince of Gotham Eventually Richard returned to the Nightwing identity, though he remained a member of Batman Incorproated. He only became Nightwing again due to Bruce's return to Gotham making him the only needed Batman. After helping Bruce tame an outbreak at Arkham Asylum, Nightwing was forced to confront Saiko, actually his childhood friend Raymond. Soon after he learned that William Cobb, the Talon, was his great-grandfather. The Talon himself confronted Richard, angry that he joined Batman instead of the Court of Owls. In battle, Richard defeated Cobb. All the while planning on renovating Amusement Mile, Nightwing was forced to fight Paragon and the Republic of Tomorrow, Long and Lady Shiva. When the Joker returned to Gotham, he proceeded to make Richard's life a living hell by destroying all of his plans for Amusement Mile. Richard was the only one who immediately forgave Bruce for keeping secrets about the Joker, continuing to aid him in Batman Incorporated. However, after the death of Damian at the hands of the Heretic and the finale of the Battle of Gotham City, Richard's relationship with Bruce once again began to deteriorate. Richard went from barely talking to Bruce, to completely avoiding him. During this time Richard was considered as a possible member of the Justice League, though he declined to join simply because of Bruce. After learning Tony Zucco to be alive and working in Chicago, Richard relocated his vigilante activities there, all while distancing himself from Bruce, to find his parent's killer. However, the police system did not take too kindly to having a "mask" in their city and targetted him as a villain. In Chicago, Richard came in conflict with the Prankster. Using the Prankster to find Zucco, Nightwing was shocked and angered when he discovered the man had gone clean. Before Nightwing could capture Zucco, the Prankster escaped and began to wreak havoc all across the city. Blaming the chaos on himself, Nightwing worked desperately to stop the madman, only to find help from Zucco. In the end, Richard stopped the Prankster and finally got closure with Zucco. Richard then teamed up with Barbara to take down Firefly. Deciding to continue his patrol in Chicago, Richard found the Marionette and the Mad Hatter involved in a teamup for Kanium. Richard returned to Gotham from Chicago temporarily to confront Bruce about Damian's death, findint out what happened to Tusk as well. Entering an Internet 3.0 simulation recreating the moment Heretic killed the young Robin, together Batman and Nightwing stopped the murder. With this Richard helped Bruce accept that Damian was gone and as the prodigal son of Batman, began to repair his relationship with Bruce once more. When Victor Zsasz showed up in Chicago, Nightwing fought him and returned to Gotham again to drop him off at Arkham Asylum. However, at Arkham, Nightwing was kidnapped by the Crime Syndicate. Nightwing's secret identity of Richard "Dick" Grayson was then exposed to the public, as a means to assert the Crime Syndicate's authority over the people of Earth Prime. However, he learned that despite being from different universes, Owlman cared for him like a brother and wished for the two to be the ones to stop the Crime Syndicate. Begrudgingly, Richard agreed. However, Richard was placed in the Murder Machine by Ultraman, with the only way out being his death and due to this, the former Nightwing was suffocated due to an "executive decision" made by Lex Luthor. Although he was later revived, with his identity compromised, Richard's death was faked and the Nightwing identity abandoned. He was then asked by Bruce to infiltrate the organization of Spyral as a spy and stop their plans. Agents of Spyral Given that becoming an agent of Spyral would require him to remain dead to the entire world except the Justice League, Dick initially refused. Eventually though, he relented and decided to do the deed, even though it required him to give up the things that meant the most to him. Tracking down members of Die Faust Der Kain, eventually, Helena Bertinelli inducted Dick into Spyral and gave him his Hypnos. Accepted as Agent 37, Dick's first mission was to recover an organ of the Paragon Protocol from Ninel Dubov. Dick was succesful, even though the mission resulted in a fight with the Midnighter. While reporting to Batman, Agent 37 headed off to his next mission where he was to apprehend Poppy Ashemoore. After being forced to use a gun for the first time, Dick was angry that despite Poppy being a murderer, she was being offered a job in Spyral. In his third mission, Agent 37 continued to track down the Paragon Protocol origins and began to work with Agent 8. In his pursuit of the Old Gun, Dick was unaware that he was being tailed by Agent 8 and Agent 1, resulting in the death of the former and the Old Gun. With Helena, Dick proceeded to infiltrate the Black Knight and recovered yet another organ. Returning to the St. Hadrian's School, Dick continued to try and figure out the identity of Mr. Minos to no avail. After being discovered by the students of St. Hadrian's, Dick was forced to pose as a gay athletics teacher at the school. Continuing to collect the Paragon Organs, after another attack by Midnighter, the plane they were in downed. Stranded with a newborn baby, Dick, Midnighter and Helena began to cross the Empty Quarter to try and make it the nearest town. After Helena collapsed, Dick was forced to travel with Midnighter, who despite his enhancements, also collapsed. Eventually Dick made it to safety and hid the child from Spyral, after which he went out and recovered Helena and Midnighter, the latter of whom was returned to Stormwatch. Dick and Helena then recovered another organ, this time from St. Francis. In between missions for Spyral, Dick helped Bruce take down Magnus Magnuson by forwarding him intel. At Gageo-Do Island, Dick learned Die Faust Der Kain to have taken a Paragon organ, but was attacked by Midnighter while Helena was interrogating a prisoner. Taken to the God Garden, Dick was defeated after Midnighter hijacked his Hypnos but managed to bounce back and claim victory. After the Gardener trapped him in the God Garden, Dick managed to convince Midnighter to help him stop Die Faust der Kain. After Minos betrayed Spyral and tried to kill Helena, Dick went to stop him but found himself up against the Paragon Protocol. To stop the undead creature, Dick shot a bullet through the heart he ensured that it would never have. When Bruce was going to go to Apokolips to recover Damian's body and the Chaos Shard, Dick stayed in the shadows of the Batcave as Bruce apologized for the Joker's actions the many months prior. Dick then vowed to take up the mantle of the Bat if Bruce died on the hellish planet and used his Spyral connections to distract the Justice League, giving his mentor enough time to Boom Tube to Apokolips. When Helena worked with Barbara on a mission in Gotham, Dick had to make sure Batgirl did not discover him. For the Second Skirmish Below Gotham, Dick returned to Gotham City and temporarily resumed his role of Batman during the Joker's march. After being incapacitated by the Joker, Dick stealthily left Gotham and returned to St. Hadrian's School. Unaware how the skirmish ended up, Dick discovered he was no longer receiving orders from Bruce and found himself forced to stay with Spyral. As Helena took over Spyral, Dick's new partner was Agent 1, whom he was forced to abandon as per Helena's orders. Learning he was to give a Kryptonite necklace to Lex Luthor, Dick learned of Bruce's fate from the megalomaniac. Sticking with his morals, Dick escaped and refused to give the necklace to Luthor, even after Luthor used the hypnos against him. Heading to save Agent 1, Dick battled his impersonator but was defeated after the mysterious foe manipulated his hypnos. Unable to handle the moral problems that came with Luthor and Spyral being able to control his actions, Dick quit Spyral and made his way back to Gotham City. Reuniting with Alfred, Dick posed as Mr. Sparrow and met the now amnesic Bruce, shocked and disheartened at what happened. However, their meeting was cut short by Agent Zero who demanded Dick return to Spyral. Given a day to get his life back in order, Dick decided to reunite with the family. Formulating a plan to take down Spyral, Dick first met with Jason and Tim, who expressed their anger at his actions but joined the plan. Meeting with Barbara, Dick discovered her to be disappointed in him but also joining the fight. Dick and Damian were overjoyed to learn each other to both be alive with his former partner easily agreeing to help. With his goodbyes said, Dick put his hypnos back in and prepared to leave Gotham but was intercepted by a depowered Superman with whom he defeated the Fist of Cain. Heading to Qatar, Dick met Agent Zero and was able to hack the hypnos to identify her as Luka Netz. Sent on a mission to defeat Tiger Shark with Agent 1, Dick secretly communicated with Tim to learn that Luka had secretly been watching him for a while. On a Spyral mission, Dick went solo to stop an organ trafficking ring. However, the ring was also attacked by an Atlantean named Garth whose powers allowed him to escape from Dick. Tracking Garth, Dick found the Atlantean angry but both of them were attacked by Donna Troy. The three continued to fight each other until an old clubhouse somehow calmed them all down. Sent on a mission to Gotham City, Dick was accompanied by Poppy Ashemoore. Betrayed by Ashemoore and attacked by Cassandra Cain, Dick was given a flashdrive by her warning him of Mother. Saving an amnesic Bruce from attackers, Dick worked with the Robins for the first time. In order to find Mother, Dick decided he would head to Prague. Informed of the Robin Laws by Tim, Dick arrived in Gotham and orchestrated a plan to try and get all the Robins to safety. Meeting with Lincoln March, Dick defeated the Talon but agreed to become a member of the Court of Owls. Finally heading off to Prague, Dick met Mother but was unable to arest her, prompting investigation into David Cain - leading Dick and Harper Row into the presence of the Sculptor. Learning Cassandra Cain's origin, Dick also learned that Bruce had been keeping his initial encounter with Mother secret for years. Making his way to the Nursery, Dick defeated David Cain before heading off to St. Hadrian's. However, Mother ended up using the airborne virus of The Order of St. Dumas on St. Hadrian's forcing Dick to fight his own students. After David Cain hacked the Somnus Satellite, Dick learned from Helena that it was a contingency that could allow him to become Nightwing again. Teaming up with Damian, Dick and the Family began to track Mother and on his way to her, was forced to fight Jean-Paul Valley. Although he ended up defeating Mother, Dick was unable to prevent David Cain from murdering her. After Bruce regained his memory and once again became Batman, Dick and the rest of the Robins teamed up with their mentor to stop crime once more. Working with Midnighter, Dick manipulated Spyral to get to fight Ladytron in the Berlin residency of Netz. Forced to knock Agent 1 unconscious, Dick siphoned all information of Netz from her computers but was attacked in retaliation by 1. Convincing Agent 1 that stopping Helena and Spyral was important, the two agreed to take down their fellow agents of Spyral. In France they took down Agent 7; in the Alps it was Agent 5 and Agent 19; in Corfu it was Agent 21, Agent 22, Agent 14 and Agent 32. In Georgia, Russia, Mongolia,China, East Timor, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Australia, the US, Guyana, Morocco, the Phillipines and Portugal they took down more of their fellow agents. In Portugal though, the two learned that Helena had deployed the Syndicate against them. In order to get backup, Dick contacted Checkmate and made a deal with Maxwell Lord to contain the Syndicate. In the jungles of Honduras, the two spies defeated Frankenstein and in Mexico they neutralized Grifter and Keshi. Using his Hypnos on Grifter though, Dick learned that the Syndicate actually planned on assassinating Helena. Personality A world class acrobat, martial artist and detective, Richard was barely fifteen when his parent's deaths caused his world to change. Richard always looked forward, contrast to Bruce who always remembered his parent's deaths, and celebrated the lives of his parents. This undaunting optimism was put to the test many times, especially when Richard was forced to face the ghosts of his past, the Court of Owls and even the Joker. Future's End During one mission with Helena, Dick used the acid that Zucco used to kill his parents to cut the rope and apprehend a criminal in a truck. He was then given a tattoo of Spyral on his arm, to ensure his execution if ever caught on a mission. During a later mission, Dick had a confrontation with Helena where she ended up punching him due to his refusal to kill, with her claiming that he would need to get his hands dirty to keep the hands of others clean. On another mission the two were about to be fed to sharks, at which point the Cluemaster's code once again popped into Dick's brain. At one mission, Dick was captured by a villain who was then shot in the skull by Helena, who claimed for Dick, she would keep her hands dirty. After the completion of one mission, Dick made his way to the extraction point where he was seduced by Helena, who wanted to know his trick with the acid. Not long after, the Earth 2 War started, forcing Dick and Helena to go to Russia, realizing only it's army was powerful enough to defeat Apokolips. Learning that KGBeast, aka the "Beast from the East", was the new Russian president, although Dick did formulate the alliance between Spyral and the Russian Federation, he also attempted to confront a Russian general on the rumours that the Beast was also killing thousands of his own people. After the alliance was sealed, Dick and Helena both went out into the field where they were attacked by hordes of the Parademon Army. The agents of Spyral were also given new uniforms to represent the new allegiance with the Russian Federation. With Helena believing the two would die, Dick finally revealed that he cut the rope using a special acid he kept under their bed. Affirming that they would not die, Dick and Helena fought through the demons, later coming to a site where the Beast had slaughtered thousands of his own people, with only a little girl surviving. Taking the little girl to a survivors site, Dick looked around as the bodies of innocents killed by their own leader just kept lining up and up. Realizing that because he helped KGBeast seize power, Dick saw that it was because of himself that thousands of innocent citizens had died. Thefore, seeing that he had already killed, when the Beast would give him a medal, Dick decided he would finally make it official. Hence, at the ceremony of the reuniting of Eurasia and the return to Communism at Russia, Dick broke the one rule that Bruce made him promise to keep, he snapped the neck of the Beast and killed him. Knowing his hands would never be clean, Dick allowed Helena to hang him and kill him. There was a chance, however, that Dick managed to hold out long enough to survive the hanging. This was assumed as Helena's choice of words matched up perfectly with the Cluemaster's Code, creating the words "the roof", which Helena was known for using to refer to an extraction point. There was also the possibility due to the way that she touched the rope, that Helena had used the acid that Zucco used on Dick's parents' rope on the hangman's noose. The chance also existed that KGBeast was not dead, but merely paralyzed, as it would take a little while for one to die after having their neck snapped. Relationships Bruce Wayne Following the deaths of Richard's parents, he was adopted by Bruce. Though their relationship got off to a rocky start, after becoming Robin, Richard would begin to respect Bruce more and moreually accept the Batman as his surrogate father. After he had a falling out with Bruce, Richard would pretend not to care for Bruce anymore, but would return to Gotham after the death of Jason Todd. Richard would reaffirm his loyalty to Bruce and respect and love Bruce as his father. Being the First Son of Batman and the heir to Wayne Manor, Richard would become the Prince of Gotham. Damian Wayne Following the dissapearance of Bruce Wayne, Richard would become Batman and Bruce's only biological son, Damian Wayne, would become Robin. Richard would try to repay his debt to Bruce in Damian by raising the boy much like Bruce had raised him. Richard and Damian would grow a brotherly bond, though much like Bruce and Richard, the two would have a rocky start. Their relationship would grow to such an extent that Damian, initially criticizing of Richard as Batman, would defend Richard as the rightful heir to Bruce Wayne in front of Talia al Ghul. Alternate Universes |-|Earth 2= In Earth 2, Dick Grayson was only associated with the Batman by proxy. This was because he was married to Barbara Gordon, who herself was only associated with the Dark Knight through her father. A photojournalist residing with his wife and son, Johnny Grayson, in the World Army Chicago Stronghold. Despite trying to make things safe for his family, he was forced to save Barbara and Johnny from Lotti in the vile hellhole called Gomorrah. In an attempt to form a peacekeeping operation, Dick teamed up with Ted Grant but during their missions Barbara was killed. Grieving, Dick gave his son to John Constantine to allow Johnny an escape from the madness of Chicago. |-|Earth 3= On Earth 3, Richard Grayson 3 was taken in by Owlman and became the assistant of the tyrant known as Talon. The two acted like brothers, but after Owlman revealed to Richard 3 the truth behind his parent's deaths, he went out to try and capture the Joker himself. Richard 3 was killed and chopped up into pieces. Category:Batman Family Category:Superhero